The Baton Rouge Police Department Thursday charged sniper suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo with shooting a Baton Rouge woman.
The sniper suspects allegedly robbed and shot Hong Im Ballenger, 45, Sept. 23 as she left her job at Beauty Depot, 3055 Florida Blvd., and walked to her car.
Police sent the bullet from Ballenger’s death to the Louisiana State Crime Lab for analysis. Investigators there linked the bullet from Ballenger’s death to the weapon used in the Washington, D.C., area sniper killings.
Previous reports placed Malvo and Muhammad in Baton Rouge during the summer, and evidence investigators found in the pair’s car places them in Baton Rouge on Sept. 23, police said. Reports did not specify this evidence.
Several federal law enforcement agencies, along with the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office, Louisiana State Police and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, are investigating Muhammad and Malvo to determine if they are linked with other area crimes.
To date, law enforcement officials in Maryland, Virginia and Alabama have charged Muhammad and Malvo with murder. The two men are suspected in the sniper shootings that began Oct. 2 and continued in the D.C. area for three weeks.
Law enforcement officials in Alabama have arrested the two men for allegedly shooting a woman during a liquor store robbery.